Review: Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Dream Ballets – A Triple Bill in Regent’s Park
Matthew Paluch sees Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Dream Ballets – unquestionable energy and commitment but a missed opportunity.
| Title | Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Dream Ballets – A Triple Bill |
| Company | Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre |
| Venue | Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London |
| Date | 20 June 2025 |
| Reviewer | Matthew Paluch |
One never quite knows how an evening at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is going to work out with the British weather… but London’s current heatwave means the original venue is in its element. Can the same be said for what’s being presented? Less so I’d proffer.
The choreographer Drew McOnie is the current Artistic Director, and his second production is Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Dream Ballets – A Triple Bill, running until June 22nd.
All three works were originally choreographed by American titan Agnes de Mille, whereas now each piece is reimagined by an individual creative.
The evening includes the wonderful playing of the 26-piece orchestra, Sinfonia Smith Square. And having the band on stage always feels like an event itself rather than buried away somewhere in a pit. The sound quality isn’t the best as it seems heavily amplified, and the distant bass line of an alternative gathering in the park was also annoyingly apparent, but them’s the breaks when dealing with external venues.
Opening the evening is Carousel, choreographed by Kate Prince, and in a way the style of the evening is set. Prince is well known for her work with ZooNation, and in fact both the first two pieces presented are rooted in hip-hop as their foundational language, with the third veering towards something more contemporary based.
The cast of Carousel bring unquestionable energy and commitment to Prince’s work, but a group of only six performers can feel inferior in such a vast space.
Personally speaking, I find hip-hop not the best medium for narrative communication. The dance style tends to have the same dynamic throughout, and if a change is needed Prince switches to a form of urban ballet, which isn’t a bad thing, but equally feels a bit randomly interspersed.
The key narrative themes were clear – power struggles, the complexities of love etc. However I didn’t feel transported, or that this new take was some kind of benchmark moving forwards. And I seriously struggled with the OTT facial expressions throughout.
The second piece was Allegro, choreographed by Julia Cheng. Allegro wasn’t a very successful show for Rodgers & Hammerstein, but I appreciate what Cheng did with her movement language. I saw a fusion of hip-hop with Juba/Charleston/soft-shoe shuffle, and the easy, organic phrasing communicated well.
That said, story wise there was very little going on – a happy-go-lucky homeless man with a shopping trolley and five bright young things seemed to do lots of nothing in a comedy of errors style skit. Allegro supposedly looked at the pressures and expectations of society, so perhaps there’s something to ponder further…?
Closing the evening was Shelley Maxwell’s Oklahoma! but not as we know it. The only give away was the odd Stetson and the well-known score, elsewhere one could’ve been mistaken for thinking you’d walked into a stage version of The Joker franchise.
Chris Akrill plays the head honcho with malicious ease, and whips his minions into a frenzy during a game of corporate infused musical chairs. Lessons are learnt as the power dynamic shifts and Akrill ends up the victim of his own employees. Power to the people!
Maxwell’s choreography is the most contemporary of the evening including serious floorwork and swooping arcs. And as the musical chairs becomes more heated, we even get some bombastic virtuosity.
The night wasn’t a runaway success for me. I appreciate and acknowledge the level of choreographic structuring in all three works, but somehow feel an opportunity was still missed. With these scores and the resources McOnie has at Regent’s Park I can’t help but wonder what could’ve been. It’s brilliant to see an evening focused on dance, but I don’t believe this one realised the weight or breadth the genre has to offer.
Matthew Paluch was awarded a place at The Royal Ballet School in 1990 where he graduated in 1997. His first four years as a professional dancer were spent working with London City Ballet, Scottish Ballet, K-Ballet and English National Ballet, becoming a full-time member of ENB until leaving in 2006.
Matthew graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance, Professional Dancers’ Teaching Diploma in 2007, and was formerly on faculty at The Royal Ballet School. He completed his Masters in Ballet Studies at Roehampton University in 2011, has been a freelance writer since 2010 and currently works in the Law Sector.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
